A major Harlem Renaissance figure, Savage began creating clay figures as a child, but she did not begin formal art studies until she moved to New York City in 1921. Her bust of black intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois was well received, and Savage then produced likenesses of other prominent black figures, including Frederick Douglass and Marcus Garvey. From 1929 to 1932 Savage studied in Paris. Upon returning to New York, she founded the Savage School of Arts and Crafts in Harlem. In the 1930s she arranged for black artists to receive commissions from the Works Progress Administration. Savage also opened New York's first black art gallery in 1939. In the 1940s, Savage retired and moved to Saugerties, N.Y.